Discover how we helped BJAB give a new life to its Website

Problem

The British Junior Academy of Brussels (BJAB) is an international School whose mission is to encourage children to reach their full potential.

Their previous Website was not matching their existing values. Alexandre Plennevaux asked Côté Clair to help them revamp the old website.

Solution

The mission was to present in a more visual way the school and its values in order to reach the core target. We have, within the creative team assembled for the occasion, determined a strategy based on black and white pictures, a one-minute video and for our part, a clean visual and interactive communication, elegant and based on simple and fair messages.

Results

  • 2350+
    Monthly visits
  • 100%
    Registration for
    2015-2016

#1 Identify Client’s Values

Understanding BJAB’s Mission

BJAB uses a different educational system than most schools. Parents are playing an important role in the child’s development and teachers encourage children to take risks.

The old website was hard to browse and was not matching the unique BJAB values.

Defining Goals

The goal was pretty clear: Convey BJAB’s values to parents to build trust.

bjab-our-mission


#2 Setting up the team

To produce the whole website, we formed a team with several partners. Alexandre Plennevaux contacted us to build the website as well as a video producer and a photograph.

  • Alexandre Plennevaux

    Alexandre Plennevaux

    Alexandre is a web designer based in Brussels. He supervised and coordinated the project.

    Alexandre also helped us work on the content architecture and wireframes.

  • bjab-mathieu-galopin

    Mathieu Galopin

    Thanks to his sensitiveness, Mathieu succeeded to capture kids’ soul through profound pictures.

    He spent several days inside the school to catch children’s smiles. View some pictures

  • bjab-alexandre-tournay

    Alexandre Tournay

    Alexandre is a passionate video producers. He managed to create beautiful and inspiring videos, capturing kids’ happiness.

    View the video


#3 Reorganising content

Understanding the message

After a long brainstorming session, we managed to articulate the client’s core message and his values in a few words. This mission statement helped us plan the site architecture and organise the content for optimal presentation.

Creating Wireframes

We gave life to the new website by organising and presenting contents via wireframes. It allowed us to quickly get a first impression of the final result without writing code.

Web site redesign

#4 Defining the Identity

Design Guidelines

To preserve the brand identity, we kept some existing elements such as the color palette and the general atmosphere of the logo.

For example, we improved the design of the logo. We moved away from the gradient look of it and opted for a more modern, flat design with very light profound effects.

Typography

We gave the website a facelift by changing the typography. We worked on spacing and shapes. We selected Modum for its Neo-Grotesque style. The font brings some modernity while maintaining an idea of excellence. For smaller content, we opted for Source Sans, a very legible font.

bjab-charte-graphique
bjab-typography
Home page BJAB
bjab-wireframe After
bjab-wireframe-2 Before

#5 Prototyping

Collecting Feedback

With the wireframes ready, we used a prototyping tool (inVision) to observe users’ reactions.

Iterative work

Based on feedback from inVision, we regularly improved the designs to reflect improvements. This approach helped BJAB get a better result faster.

bjab-invision

#6 WordPress Development

Content Management

For the technical aspect, we opted for WordPress, a CMS (Content Management System) that allows the client to manage his site on his own after the project.

Setting up a blog

To facilitate communication with parents, we installed a blog. With WordPress, configuration, design and development was very easy.

codeexport

#7 Improving Visibility

To attract new students for upcoming years, we worked on usability and visibility of the website. We worked on designing a mobile-friendly version and prepare the website for SEO.

Code optimization

To generate as much traffic as possible from search engines, we made sure to write SEO-friendly code all along the development phase. Fast loading webpages is a key aspect of good SEO.

Indexing

We created sitemaps and submitted all content to Webmaster tools. Also, the technical aspects were respected (readable URLS, meta-tags, pagination …)

Mobile Friendly

In 2014, Google announced it was going to rank better websites that have a mobile-friendly version. The site passed the Google compatibility test successfully test compatibility via Google.

bjab-seo-friendly
bjab-mobile-en
bjab-sarah-white
Côté Clar has been a very important partner in our journey to changing BJAB’s branding. We are extremely happy with their work.Sarah White, Head Teacher at BJAB